GI Ghost Town

By Andrew Nunn

6 June 2014

Far off the beaten path of high-speed rails, the Autobahn, factories manufacturing precision German products, and in the farmlands of Germany lies a tiny village named Baumholder. The town, located in Rheinland-Pfalz, closely bordering Saarland, surrounded by rolling green hills topped with electricity generating windmills is home to 4,000 Germans, 6,000 Americans, an estimated 36 different ethnicities from around the world, and no major employer outside of the United States military.

Baumholder’s history supposedly starts back at around 50 B.C. as there are archeological relics of Roman Soldiers passing through the town area. In about 500 AD the town was settled by the Celts, then the Franks, and in 1156 the first documentation of the name “”Bemundula” (what is Baumholder today), placing it in the Holy Roman Empire. During Europe’s exchange of empires and civilizations, Baumholder and the surrounding areas changed hands often, until it got its start as a military town in 1941, when the Nazis established a barracks and training area here. Following the German surrender of World War II in 1945, Baumholder was occupied by the French military, then taken over by U.S. forces in 1951. Its fate has been linked to the ups and downs of the American military ever since.

Baumholder and was once a boom town. In the post war years, as American GIs with expendable incomes and families poured in at the dawn of the Cold War, dozens of bars and restaurants sprang open to keep up. The Smith Barracks garrison of Baumholder has housed infantry brigades for deployments ranging from Vietnam to the former Yugoslavia to the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and over the years, most of Baumholder's economy has adapted to serve the military community and their families: duty-free car sales, bars, restaurants, payday loans, barber shops, strip clubs and brothels. These establishments of drinking, eating, and entertainment are often housed in run-down buildings that are on the verge of being condemned. A European franchise of the American chain of bars “Coyote Ugly” was once housed in Baumholder at what was formerly the city’s train station, now it remains closed, with many of its windows broken out. Another example is the “Vegas Table Dance” club, which held a long history of being open or closed on the current troop levels in Baumholder, which currently remains closed.

But the end of the Iraq War, and the slow wind down of the war in Afghanistan have brought with them their own problems. Today there are an estimated 2,000 U.S. service members stationed in Baumholder (with their dependents, they number a total of 6,000 Americans) and rumors persist throughout the local Baumholder community that the base -- currently home to a sustainment brigade with a logistics company, multi-medical battalion, quartermaster, transportation, military police, signal, and medical support units, and an international military training area -- may be marked for closure.

Since President George W. Bush’s decision to begin reducing troop levels in Germany in August of 2004, 59 bases have closed, leaving 37 manned bases in Germany. While the importance and necessity of some bases to remain open and manned, such as Rammstein Air Force Base, which serves as a hub for U.S. and NATO forces throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, or Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which has been an invaluable lifesaving asset to U.S. and Nato forces between combat zones and other military medical assets, the necessity for Baumholder’s training areas is uncertain. These days, the bars and restaurants of Baumholder remain mostly vacant, the streets empty and quiet, save for the occasional bursts of machine gun fire that ring out day and night from the training areas, the rumble of military vehicles and the sound of fighter jets strafing dummy targets.

Peter Gotten and his stepdaughter Daniela Ramos own a hotel and restaurant named Stadtkrug, on Poststraße in the town’s center. Opened in 1979 by Peter’s late spouse, Stadtkrug specializes in wood-grilled steaks and ribs, and has a few rooms upstairs for guests. The walls are decorated with photographs of high-ranking military officers, certificates of appreciation from various units in the German and American militaries, and license plates from every state in America -- all keepsakes handed down from guests and customers over the years.

“We have a lot of American customers, that’s true, but we also have German guests,” Gotten said. “But I think that we have to change the business if the U.S. Army would leave this region.”

Baumholder was different before the draw down, Daniela said – full of bars and restaurants “Baumholder does not have its own history outside the U.S. Army,” she said. “If the barracks would close, everything in Baumholder would fall apart.”

Just across the street from Stadtkrug is Afrin Döner Kebab Shop, owned by a Syrian Kurdish immigrant named Khalil Kanji Kamis. Kamis said he fled to Germany 21 years ago after being imprisoned by the Bashar al-Assad regime for teaching Kurdish children the Kurdish language. He took his wife and two children to Germany to start a new life.

“I came first to Baumholder, because I had relatives here. From Baumholder we went to Trier to apply for asylum. My brother-in-law lived here before and opened the kebab store about 20 years ago,” Kamis said.

He added he was grateful for the opportunities the town had given him.

“In 2014 I went back [to Syria] for 5 days because my mother died. When I got back and saw how bad Syria is right now, I knew how happy and lucky me and my family are to live in Germany,” Kamis said. “I don’t want to see my children grow up in a place like that. Germany is my home.”

My children feel the same,” he continued. “We speak all very good German and we are very well integrated.”

Baumholder has become his family’s new home, and Kamis too is concerned about the future. “I took the store from my brother-in-law about 10 years ago. Since we opened the store our main customers are the Americans. I would say that I have 95 percent American customers,” he said.

“Since the US Army reduced the soldiers here, my business is getting worse,” Kamis added. “If the Americans leave Baumholder I will have to close the store and leave the region.”

He continued by saying there were rumors that more soldiers were coming, not fewer, but that rumors about base closures and expansions are frequent, and seldom pan out. But, “all the businesses in Baumholder are hoping for more U.S. soldiers,” Kamis said.

When asked about the rumors, military officials say "Baumholder is enduring, and here to stay, with plans of even growing the base in the future,” Ignacio Rubalcava, the American public affairs liaison for the Baumholder U.S. army garrison, said bluntly during a phone interview in March of 2015.

When asked about rumors the base might be closed or repurposed to train and house special operations forces, Rubalcava was mum: "I can't comment on that, there are some plans about that, but I cannot comment on current special operations forces in Baumholder.”

Charles Benson, 37, runs the NU LOOK barbershop just outside the main gate of the base. Originally from Ghana, Benson came to Germany with his wife in search of a better life, and better opportunities. He got his start in Mannheim, where he cut hair for soccer players and American troops stationed there until that base closed in 2012; that same year, he also went through a divorce, and decided to make a fresh start in Baumholder, which he’d seen was home to 20,000 soldiers.

“Unfortunately for me when I came what I saw on the Internet was not the same," he said. Business owners throughout the town are all asking themselves what they’ll do if the base closes, he said.

“It's a very rough and tough situation,” he said. I can barely pay bills. I'm just waiting till my rental contract ends in June, then move on to something else.”

Today, the town’s reputation as a rough and tumble, mostly American city seems like a distant memory. The base once had a main street adorned in German and American flags to signify German-American friendship. Today, it is now full of buildings being renovated, poised to become newly refurbished housing and barracks – signs of hope that Baumholder has a future with the U.S. military after all.

A hillside covered in white and brown housing units and barracks for US Military personnel and their families while stationed in Baumholder, Germany.

Khalil Kanji Kamis, a refugee from Syrian Kurdistan makes a Döner Kebab Sandwich at a local restaurant he owns, which relies heavily on American patrons. “95% of my customers are Americans.”

A slot-casino in the bowling alley of Smith Barracks for US Military personnel.

A strip club, formerly frequented by US Military personnel is boarded up and uninhabited, following a massive draw-down of forces in 2013.

Train tracks used specifically for transporting military vehicles to and from the Baumholder military training area remain still and silent.

A sign advertising a local church for the US Military community hangs in a used car lot, just outside of Smith Barracks.

A building which used to house a strip club, a discotheque, two restaurants, and two bars, now sits idly, as the businesses have moved on as have their American patrons.

A building which used to house a strip club, a discotheque, two restaurants, and two bars, now sits idly, as the businesses have moved on as have their American patrons.

Customers and employees of Stadtkrug having a discussion. "Stadtkrug" in German means the city mug, or a place for the community to gather for beers, the Stadtkrug lives up to its name, bringing members of the US and German militaries together to socialize, drink, and eat.

A plate of ribs served with a side of fries at Stadtkrug restaurant, in Baumholder. The ribs are made from a Texan dry-rub recipe, which Peter the grill chef learned while stationed there with his ex-wife.

Peter grills racks of ribs and steaks over a wood fire, and plates them with their sides, then serves them to the customers.

Construction for a new park in the city of Baumholder.

The window of a wig shop outside of the main gate of Smith Barracks, which specializes in wigs for African American women.

Charles Benson, a migrant from Ghana, cleans the windows of his barber shop, waiting for customers. “I heard there were about 20,000 Soldiers in Baumholder, so I came here. Shortly after I got here, I realized that just wasn’t true."

Steven Galloway an agent for Military Auto Source reviews documents on his computer so that a customer can pick up their new car. “Business in Baumholder went from boom to bust.”

A dorment storefront with a display window filled with flags commemorating American and German Friendship. One sign shows German and American flags, reading, “Baumholder …we belong together!"

Customers of a bar, stand outside and have a cigarette in the silent streets of Baumholder. In the distance machine gun fire can be heard as training is conducted on one of Baumholder’s many military training areas.

Lisa Seybold and an unidentified German friend play darts on a quiet night at Blue’s Billiards. “Everything has calmed way down, things used to be so crazy here.”